You Can Never Go Back
by Lin Lee
Summary: Ranma is Back! After traveling for close to two years it is a new beginning for him as a freshman at the local college. How did he leave things in Nerima and how have they changed in his absence?


You Can Never Go Back: Part I

You Can Never Go Back: Part I

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When I was young, barely past the age of five, my mother and I took weekly walks to a small park near our house. Immense pine trees and great oaks surrounded the grass clearing, in the middle of the park was a small pond. My mother always brought extra food and she and I would stand near the water's edge feeding birds. I tried my best to coax them to me, leaving a small trail to where I stood very still, but they always stayed clear of me never wandering far from the rocky shoreline.

We came and we went, feeding the birds, until more adolescent things filled my mind. Often the memories come back to me and I wish myself back there. Once on a whim while driving I visited the small park. I walked past the great trees that once loomed over me as a child and even though they reached high toward the heavens they seemed dwarfed somehow compared to my vision of the past. I strolled over the quaint wooden bridge that led to the pond and saw a new family of birds and a small child with her mother throwing them morsels of their food. As I had no food of my own, I just sat on a nearby bench and watched the girl painfully try to get the birds to eat from the palm of her tiny hand.

I sat and I watched and I thought, until the remains of the day threatened. All the familiar sights and smells surrounded me, but I felt nothing. A twinge of depression passed over me. All the memories were still there, but the feeling of wonderment and newness to the world were not to be found sitting beside a placid pond in the middle of a small park. Nor the sweetness of my mother's touch being held in her arms, I came back to find these things lost with the passage of time. All that is left of them are what lives in my heart and my memories. In the end you really never can go back.

The young man adjusted the pack slung over his shoulder, took a deep breath and walked through the iron gates along the pathway engraved in the grass. People around the same age were scurrying around the great campus trying to use up their last few hours of freedom before the next school year began. Some were unloading their cars of their meager belongings, others were enjoying the time with family and friends.

The young man walked on past them all, intent on the ground below his feet. A few faces stood out from the crowd. Classmates from high school. Most went about their way leaving him to be part of the scenery only a couple recognizing him. One or two shouted a hello, he casually waved back staying steady to the path.

He arrived at a large courtyard filled with brick buildings and pulled out a folded piece of paper from the front of his pack. After examining it for a few minutes, he scanned his surroundings, found the building he was looking for, put the paper away and was back on his way.

"Okigima Co-ed Dormitory." He said reading the metal plate outside the sturdy oak double doors. He walked in and immediately sidestepped two boys running down the stairs.

"Sorry man!" The young man just waved a hand in response, adjusted his pack and continued up the stairs. He made his way to the third floor avoiding several rambunctious students. The building was full of activity, dorm rooms left open to expose the suitcases and boxes lining the floors and flooding into the halls. The young man arrived at his room, the door slightly ajar.

Slowly he opened the door with his fingertips. More boxes, a bare bed and no roommate. He through his pack down on the bed with the least amount of clutter and walked over to the window looking down into the courtyard. 'A nice enough view of the cherry blossom trees,' he thought to himself. He looked back into the room examining box after box. "So what kind of a guy am I gonna be stuck with?"

The first box he came to had a pair of boxing gloves hanging over the side. He shifted the glove to find a couple weights and a jump rope. 'Well at least he isn't a couch potato. Might even have someone to spar with.' Suddenly a foot came crashing through the doorway slamming the door into the wall, and a box with legs walked into the room.

"Um, hi." The young man said examining the box's legs. They were shapely, but firm, creamy white skin under tan shorts. He cocked his head to the side, these were definitely female legs. It had been awhile, but not that long.

"Oh hi, you must be-" The girl poked her head out from behind the box and froze with shock. The box slipped from her grip falling toward the ground. The young man lunged forward with remarkable speed catching the bottom at the exact moment she bent down catching it on either side. Their eyes locked and neither moved a muscle.

"Hi yah, Akane, long time no see."

"Ranma…" He hefted the box from her hands and placed it on the floor behind him. "What are you doing here?"

"Is that how you say hello to your…old friend."

"Oh, hello." She walked toward him attempting a hug then change to a handshake eventually just giving up all together. "I just wasn't expecting to see you of all people in my dorm room."

"I just got back today. Had you heard?"

"Yeah, Nabiki said something." They sat on the beds across from each other.

"I'll be starting as a freshman this year." She nodded. "So you're a sophomore then?"

"Well sort of. I changed my major this year so some of the classes I took last year aren't going to count toward my degree."

"That's too bad."

"Yeah well you know." She shrugged looking from him to the window then over to the wall.

"What were you saying about this being your room?" Her earlier comment suddenly registering.

"Yup, I was just assigned to this room."

"Well there must be some mistake." He got up from the bed and grabbed his pack and removed the folded piece of paper. "This is my assigned room."

"Huh, lemme see." She looked over his shoulder to see the very room they were standing in. "But how? This is a co-ed dorm, but not that co-ed."

"Musta been a mix up. I'll head over to the main building and straighten things out." He turned and walked over to the door looking back for just a moment. "It was nice seeing you again, Akane. I hope I can see more of you now that I'm back."

"Me too, Ranma." She watched him turn and disappear down the hallway. She sank back down onto her bed. The springs creaked loudly drowning out all other noise in the dormitory and she turned her gaze once again to the window.

"I'm sorry Ranma, but that is the only room available until next semester."

"Well, how did this happen?" Ranma looked down harshly at the brunette.

"It would appear that someone inappropriately marked you in the computer as a female. Ironic isn't it." The older girl smiled, but Ranma found no humor in the situation.

"Listen, Nabiki, this is ridiculous-how did this REALLY happen?" He said, his gaze turning more threatening.

"Well your information is entered into the computer and then the computer picks people at random and pairs them up to be roommates. And like I said, somehow you were entered as a female so you were given a female roommate."

He sighed exasperated.

"If you want to forfeit your tuition and sign up again next semester I can make the arrangements."

"I guess I don't have much choice do I." He turned on his heal and stormed out of the office back into the courtyard. "What a way to start things off."

Nabiki watched his exit a wide grin on her face. "Welcome back Ranma."

Once more Ranma stood outside his dormitory, looking up to the third floor holding his breath. He walked up the stairs to his floor, the activities in the halls had increased with the addition of more students. Most were chatting in the hallway a few were still moving their things in. Ranma had always had few belongings having lived on the road most of his life. There were a few times he seemed to make roots, but they only lasted a couple years at the most.

He arrived at his room to find the door closed. Giving it a gentle rap he was beckoned to come in. Akane was sitting on the floor riffling through a box and for the second time she was surprised to see him.

"Hi." She said softly, removing her hands from the box and placing them by her side. "So did you get everything fixed?"

He walked past her and sat on the chair between the beds. "Well it seems there was some kind of mix up and this is the only dorm room available until next semester." He spoke quickly twiddling his fingers in his lap. 'OK here we go.' He thought to himself preparing for her onslaught. She sat still on the floor never looking at him.

"Oh." Was all she said.

"Did you hear me we are stuck together!" He regretted the words as soon as they left his lips. "I mean…"

"I understood. I guess you went and saw Nabiki then?"

"Yeah she was at the front desk. Is she running the place or what?"

"You know Nabiki, she always has her connections."

"Do you think she…" He motioned his hand between them.

"What would she have to gain?" Akane straightened. "I certainly wouldn't-"

"I never said you did." Ranma held his hands up in defense and she relaxed.

"Well we're back at the beginning again. I have an early class tomorrow so I really need to get settled, which bed do you prefer?"

"You mean we are actually going to do this?" Ranma was a little surprised she hadn't pulled out her mallet and sworn to make things right or told him to camp out on the roof.

"Until we can come up with other arrangements, yes. I think it is safe to say that neither of us want this and that we are both going to try to straightened things out." He nodded and suppressed the urge to look under the bed and start shouting where the real Akane was.

There wasn't much in deciding which bed, one was on the left the other was on the right that was the only difference. He took left, she took right. The room was quite small, a desk separated the two beds, a closet at the end of Akane's bed. Ranma let Akane take the desk in front of the window while he took the one at the end of his bed. He put the clothes from his pack into the first two drawers in the small dresser against the wall facing the room then stored his pack on the shelf in the closet.

All of the decisions were quite painless, neither fought over a single thing. Ranma was relieved to see she left most of her personal items at the Tendo home. He wasn't sure that he could stand all the cutesy things she kept in her room. Ranma sat on his bed pretending to get acquainted with his schedule as he watched her move around the room. She unpacked her clothes silently, hanging a few dresses in the closet, no uniforms, and placing her athletic and other less formal clothes in the dresser. A light pink color filled her cheeks as she put her more personal things away. She glanced up at him and he buried his face in the piece of paper.

She continued to empty the rest of her boxes. Athletic equipment, an alarm clock, lots of school supplies and some picture of the Tendos. Ranma came alive when he saw the pictures and leaned over the bed to look down at them.

"Can I see?" He beamed at her.

"Course, it has been awhile." She pulled out a few and handed them to him. "You've probably seen most of these."

There were a couple of pictures of the Tendo girls when they were young. A familiar picture of Akane's late mother, old but well kept. Then he came across a picture of himself sparring with his father. They were dressed in white gi's standing in front of the koi pond at the Tendo Dojo. It had been so long since he had visited the Tendo home or seen Kasumi, Mr. Tendo, or even his father, his heart ached slightly at seeing the pictures. Ranma held the picture tightly until Akane handed him a couple more.

"A few of these are from last year."

On top of the pile was the group picture taken at the island of Togenkeyo a few summers back. He smiled; he kept the same picture in his pack. The next was of Akane and Ukyo dressed in uniforms after winning some game. They looked surprisingly friendly toward each other. The last picture took his breath away. Nabiki and Akane dressed in formal gowns preparing to go to some formal party. He wanted to ask all about them but felt strange and just put them aside.

Once she was hustling around the room again Ranma looked back up from his schedule studying her. Her hair was longer only by about two or three inches at the most. Their height had increased in precise proportion to each other maintaining the five or so inches he held above her. Where he had gained muscle she had gained curves, not that she had lost any strength, she looked sturdier than ever. At that moment he would have loved to see her sparring. Refusing to look at him, she emptied the last box and placed it outside the room. She began to close the door behind her, but a young man wedged his foot in the door.

"Huh?"

"Hey Akane!" She opened the door to find the muscular young man smiling at her. "We're dorm-mates this year."

She smiled back, but the boy's face fell when he caught a glimpse of Ranma on the bed. She turned to Ranma then looked back at the boy.

"Oh this is Ranma my…roommate." The young man looked from Akane to Ranma then back to Akane again.

"Hmm…" He said looking at her from head to toe paying particle attention to what was in between.

"What?" Akane said, and Ranma began to get irritated.

"Well, you definitely look female. How did you manage to get a guy as your roommate? I feel gypped!"

"It was a mistake, Ranma was entered as a female and this is the only room available."

"Nabiki making a mistake. Never heard that before." The boy looked skeptical for a moment. "Well I guess there is a first time for everything. A pleasure to meet you Ranma, I'm Fujimo."

Fujimo held his hand out and Ranma walked over and shook it rather firmly. "Nice to meet you too."

"Maybe I can show you around some after classes tomorrow." Fujimo immediately determined Ranma was a martial artist and assessed that he was probably quite good.

"Sounds like fun." Akane walked back into the room feeling overwhelmed by the testosterone level.

"See you tomorrow, Akane." Fujimo craned his head around Ranma and she gave him an absent wave good-bye. Ranma closed the door and turned around. Akane was organizing the books on her desk. She turned and their eyes locked, they both smiled awkwardly and turned away again.

"I-I'm gonna get ready for bed I get up pretty early to go jogging." She gathered up her things in her arms.

"So you still jog? Can I join you?"

"Sure if you want. I'm sure it won't be much of a workout for you after all your training."

"Well you seemed to have stayed in shape. We should spar again like old times. You look like you still train." He looked around the room and pointed at her various martial art weapons. Anyone else might have thought she was into S&M.

"I doubt I'd be a match for you, besides you don't hit girls remember." He noticed a slight bitterness in her voice as she walked past him into the hall. He felt the old frustration creep in. 'She can be so…infuriating.'

The next morning they were up before dawn. She had her shoulder length hair tied up in a ponytail dressed in her tank top and shorts, if it had been any other woman he would have called her cute. Dragging himself from bed, Ranma put on his usual Chinese outfit. Practical yet stylish-still his favorite clothes to wear. They jogged steadily together Ranma kept by her side although he could have run far off ahead. She had been quiet and meek their first day back together. He wasn't sure if he liked it or hated it. He wasn't sure what he expected after being away for almost two years.

They ran throughout the campus, she pointed out various points of interest until they reached a more condensed block of the campus. She was scanning the building and Ranma felt they were not alone. He stayed alert and watched her every movement. Without warning she lunged into an ally and pulled a boy out and thrust him to his knees. She held her hand back ready to strike him hard in the face, but just held him by the throat. Her eyes never wavered from him.

"Hey coach, I thought I was going to get you today." She let him go and he rose to his feet a little flushed in the face.

"You guys make more noise then a herd of elephants. You'll never get the jump on me if you can't stay quiet." She looked at the young man harshly and several boys started to emerge from various places around them. Each hung their heads walking away.

"You better get going Togi."

"You aren't going to introduce us?" Togi glared at Ranma.

"Ranma this is Togi. Togi, Ranma." Togi instantly disliked Ranma and Ranma returned the feeling. They shook hands forcefully until both their knuckles turned white.

"Will we be seeing you at tryouts with the coach here?" Togi gestured toward Akane. "I'd enjoy a little match."

Ranma surveyed him as not much of a threat. He was well built, but much too full of himself. "I would enjoy that."

"Well good. We gotta get going, first day of classes you know. Come on Ranma." Akane grabbed him by the arm and started back to her jog not stopping until they were back at their dorm.

"So what's up, COACH?" Ranma grinned closing the door to their room behind him. She sighed and turned toward him.

"It's nothing. The kick boxing coach quit last year and Nabiki volunteered me to be the new coach. We started to win more and more meets so they asked me to do it permanently." She shuffled her stuff together, speaking quickly. "You don't have to go, really."

"No I'd like to, it'll be fun." He smiled down at her still blocking the door. She looked up at him.

"I gotta get to class Ranma. I'll see you in Health." He moved to the side and let her pass. They had two classes together, health and business theory. Two of Ranma's more boring classes. Ranma was majoring in PE while Akane was only minoring. Being a business major didn't seem to suit her, but he guessed that she took her duty of being a partner in the Tendo-Saotome school Anything-Goes Martial Arts seriously. As did he, they had both of their signatures on paper to prove it.

Ranma made it to his first class barely in time. He walked into the history class and spotted Fujimo and sat beside him.

"Well, hello there, nice to see you again. How's Akane?" Just mentioning the girl's name caused three more boys to join the conversation.

"Hey Fuji is this the guy?" He nodded. All three looked at each other then back to Ranma.

"You sleep with Akane?" Ranma was about to protest violently, but Fujimo beat him to it.

"No, he's her roommate, you moron."

"Close enough for me." Said Tasuto, the short boy with glasses.

"Well not me. I could definitely get closer to that sexy-"

"We all know how YOU feel Kunechi."

Kunechi unlike his studious looking friend was good looking and had an air of confidence about him.

"I'm envious, how did you swing it man?" The third, Moroki, a plain looking boy of considerable height, anxiously asked.

"It was just a mistake." Ranma said matter-of-factly.

"I would never call such a wonderful gift a mistake." Added Tasuto.

"You'll have to excuse them Ranma, they tend to have one track minds." Fujimo said, trying to control his friends.

"With a bod' like that how couldn't we!"

"There is much more to Miss Tendo than her physical attributes."

"Yeah like the fact that she could kick all our asses is a turn on too. So what's your plan of attack man?" Kunechi turned from the other two boys to Ranma.

"My plan-of attack?" Ranma stuttered his brow furrowing.

"Yeah for Akane. It had better be a good one."

"Uh…"

"There isn't a single man that has gotten anywhere with that chick."

"Really, none?" Ranma said surprised.

"Nope, the scoop is that she was ditched by her fiancé and now she hates men." The taller boy interjected, Ranma shrank low in his chair.

"That's not true she doesn't hate men. I have heard that she was in love with this incredible martial artist. He was like the best ever and when they split she just hasn't been able to find another guy who could compare." Tasuto anxiously pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

"You are all nuts she is just a sweet young girl waiting for the right guy to come along and sweep her off her feet."

"You are such a sap Fuji."

"Hey, that is my theory and I am sticking with it."

"So what happened to this great martial artist fiancé of hers?" Ranma asked.

"Dunno that. He definitely left the picture though. He's supposed to be unbeatable."

"You do martial arts right Ranma?" Fujimo asked poking Ranma in the side.

"I dabble here and there." Ranma looked away absently. Fujimo focused on his face intently, but let the comment go.

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Revised 9/2/01

Author's Notes  
I enjoy writing this story but it is rather difficult since this series is a little more dramatic then the rest of my writing. I'm not sure how quickly this will write, I have a feeling once I get started it will suddenly be completed.

Disclaimer - I didn't create any of these characters and I ain't gettin' paid for squat. 


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